Cinnamon, pistachio and almond filo swirls.

About a week ago, my flatmate came back from a Turkish market that was held somewhere in Cardiff. She had bought two of her favorite Christmas treats that she admitted to gorging on every Christmas. These two luxury foods were stuffed vine leaves, and Turkish baklava rolls- both of which she allowed me to try.

I had tasted baklava before, in Crete, but the ones my flatmate allowed me to try were something else! The baklava I had tried in the past were sticky and overwhelmingly sweet, without any other flavours really coming through, but these Turkish baklava were sweet, sticky, nutty, and spiced with a touch of cinnamon. Unbelievably delicious!

Ever since I tried them, I've wanted to recreate them- these rolls aren't exactly what I had in mind, but they are a humble imitation that's full of decadent Christmas flavour.

Ingredients:

• Ready-made filo pastry (you can usually find it in the frozen department), defrosted (allow at least 24 hours), and allowed to come to room temperature.
• 100g ground almonds
• 85g toasted pistachio nuts, ground
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 150g butter (for the filling)
• 50g butter (for brushing the pastry)
•  1 tbsp honey
• 100g light brown sugar 
• squeeze of lemon juice

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 190C
• Prepare the filling by creaming together the sugar and 150g butter in a medium bowl. Next add the ground almonds, cinnamon, honey, and the pistachios- mix it all together. 
• Add the lemon juice, mix, and set the bowl to one side.
• Melt the 50g butter in the microwave, and grab a pastry brush.
• Make sure your work surface is clean and clear.
• put the butter with the pastry brush next to you, and un-roll the filo pastry. Be careful to work quickly with this pastry so it doesn't dry out- it's so thin, if it dries it will break even more easily. I would advise only rolling out the area of the pastry you are working with at the time, to minimize drying.
• Unfold one sheet on your pastry flat on to the work surface, and brush quickly and gently with melted butter. Smooth the next layer down on to the first buttered sheet, and butter the surface of that sheet. Continue in this way until you reach the end of your filo sheets, making sure each one has been individually buttered. 
• Add small teaspoon-sized blobs of the filling around the surface of your top sheet of buttered filo, and use your fingers to gently spread the blobs out so that they thinly cover the surface of the filo completely. Be careful not to drag the filling with your fingers, as this will tear the delicate pastry, just press it out so that it spreads out that way. 
• When the filling is spread, start to roll up the filo sheets, as tightly as you can without damaging the pastry, buttering the underside as you go. You should end up with a long roll of filo wrapped over the cinnamony nutty  filling. Grab a sharp knife, and cut in to appropriately sized little rolls ( about bite-sized).
• On a lined baking tray, place the filo rolls and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the pastry is puffy and brown.

Ta-daa! Tasty Christmas treat :)